Guide to Resources for Politics
Reference Books
Printed reference books
The most general dictionaries of politics are found under 320.03 in the Dewey Decimal Classification; for American politics see 320.97303.
There are quite a few encyclopedias of politics in the library's Reference collection.
Other aids are found in the reference collection under the Dewey Decimal Classification numbers 320-324.
Some electronic books for reference
To access these books from off campus you will need you My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.
Oxford Reference
The Oxford Reference Online database has reference books on politics and government, including Dictionary of political biography, The Oxford companion to the politics of the world, The Concise Oxford dictionary of politics, and The Oxford guide to the United States government
International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
International encyclopedia of the social sciences is a good source for articles on academic aspects of this subject.
netLibrary
To access these books from off campus you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password (see netLibrary access). There are many electronic books on political subjects: Browse E-books relating to politics.
Finding other books and and audiovisual materials
Use the library catalog to look for additional materials. The Chemeketa catalog page includes instructions on using the catalog and on requesting materials through the catalog. There are also links to other library catalogs. You can search by key words, by authors, or by subject headings. A suggestion on where to find subject headings to use in the catalog is given below.
The Library of Congress has a Web site where you can search for subject headings. When you put in a search term, the results will list terms in a table. Those with a red button marked, "Authorized and references" are terms that the Library of Congress uses in subject catalogs. Clicking the button may show more specific ("narrower") terms.
Fig. 1. The catalog search
You may have to do several searches to find books that might be pertinent to your subject.
If you live in the Chemeketa Cooperative Regional Library Service (CCRLS) district, you may also access the catalog online at your local public library. In addition to the books in the Chemeketa College Library, the catalog also contains the collections of the 17 public libraries located in the regional library district, and can pass your search through to Summit (see below).
Summit
Chemeketa students registered for credit may use Summit, the Orbis Cascade Alliance catalog, to request items from 34 member libraries in Oregon and Washington. Summit uses a search called WorldCat. Authorized users have access to all of the material in the Chemeketa Community College library, plus about 28 million items in Summit. Chemeketa users may request items using their student number and have them sent to Chemeketa, or they may set up a Visiting Patron account at another Alliance library.
- Summit: http://summit.worldcat.org/
- Summit Help: http://www.oclc.org/worldcatlocal/help/default.htm
- Libraries & Map: http://orbiscascade.org/map/
Databases & Indexes
All the electronic databases listed in this section may be accessed by going to the library's Database Page. If you are accessing the databases from a computer not on the Chemeketa Community College network, you will need your My Chemeketa user name and six-digit password.
Some guidance about sources is given below. To get a feel for the richness of resources in this area, go to the E-journals page and try searchng for "Title includes" politic*, election*, or congress*.
Journal Article Databases
Online indexes
- Academic OneFile [Gale]
- Index to over 12,000 publications, including thousands of peer-reviewed, abstracted and indexed journals, many of which are in full text.
- LexisNexis Academic
- A vast trove of political information, domestic and international. The general news search is useful; to find more specialized information, use the "Source" feature. A small selection of U.S. sources is listed here:
- The Almanac of American Politics
- The Associated Press Candidate Biographies
- The Associated Press Election Results (Historical)
- Campaign 2008 News (a compendium of campaign information from a large pool of sources)
- Campaigns & Elections (A trade journal serving the business of politics)
- CongressNow
- CQ Federal Department and Agency Documents
- CQ transcriptions
- Election Weekly
- FDCH News Service Capitol Report (committee hearings)
- Gallup Poll
- Governing Magazine
- Government Leader
- The Hill
- Journal of Law & Politics
- Politics and Government Materials (Aggregate of news sources)
- Roll Call
- World Almanac of U.S. Politics
- Oregonian
- Full text of the Oregonian newspaper on LexisNexis Academic.
Internet Sites
- Statesman Journal
- Search the Statesman Journal, for news. Click "Archives" and put a word or phrase in the search space. The search engine returns a list of articles and displays the first five or six lines of the article for free. Full text articles are pay-per-view.
- Oregon (State and local government on the net - Oregon)
- Links to state, regional, county, and municipal governments.
- Oregon Elections History
- The state Elections Division site, with voter's pamphlets for previous elections. (Note: Chemeketa's library also has a paper file of voter's pamphlets for older elections.)
- Project Votesmart
- A superb, nonpartisan, political awareness site.
- Thomas
- Has comprehensive information the U.S. Congress, including bills, resolutions, activity in Congress, Congressional Record, schedules, calendars, committee information, presidential nominations, laws, and treaties. It also connects to other useful sources of information, such as Congressional biographies.
See Useful Sites for Philosophy & Ethics.
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